Hello everyone! Today Im carrying on the tradition of posting about my yearly Pumpkin Project!

Ive been making a pumpkin project every year, for the past five years or so. These projects always have an autumn themed color palette, and historical inspiration behind them. Though the levels of historical accuracy vary from year to year.

These are always some of my favorite projects I make throughout the year. For me, they mark when the weather starts to get cooler and when I start to feel more inspired. I think that shows in the outcome, and I certainly feel it when working on them!

Though the pumpkin project looks different each year, they all have one thing in common: They are photographed in a local pumpkin patch, and the photos are posted here at the end of October.

I dont have as many, or as varied of photos this year. I ended up feeling quite sick during the shoot, so it was cut short. And due to scheduling conflicts and a LOT of rain, we photographed this midday when the lighting was very harsh. I tried to jazz them up with editing, but they still arent my favorite.

However I do really love the costume itself. It consists of a bright orange jacquard dot taffeta skirt, and a heavily beaded mesh blouse. You can see the process of constructing this ensemble from start to finish in these two videos.

Making the Blouse

Making the Skirt

And now for the photos!

And that is it! I feel like some of the details in the blouse were lost in these photos, which stinks. But I still know they are there, and I think it still looks lovely, so Im relatively happy.

It feels condescending to say I hope your year is going well, given what a dumpster fire it has been. But I do hope that you are well, and thank you for reading!

Angela

Hello everyone! Its that time of the year again where I make a dramatic holiday themed gown, and photograph it at a local Christmas Tree Farm.

This year I was inspired by a beautiful green velvet I found at joanns I knew it needed to be turned into an elaborate velvet robe or cloak of some sort, and paired with an equally striking dress.

I raided my stash for fabrics to match it, and came across a seven yard cut of silk satin. The sheen and contrast of the white satin against the green was lovely. So then there was the matter of what I should make with it. I ended up turning to the 17th century for inspiration, and came up with a relatively simple dress design based on paintings from the 1630s.

Or at least a design that looks quite simple. Dresses from the 1630s were worn without foundation garments, instead the structure was built into the bodice of the dresses. Meaning making one is sort of like making a set of staysand also making a dress. Plus dresses from this era had cartridge pleats and hidden closures which are always more time consuming than the alternatives.

To prevent the dress from being boring, I decided to decorate it with jeweled details. These were made by sewing glass montees, pearls, and brass cameo frames masquerading as gold settings onto organza ribbon. The ribbon drapes over the shoulders of the dress and is supported by the volume of the sleeves, and a pin at the centerfront.

I made a matching necklace as well, and a coordinating waistband. I think the end result is quite lovely! I dont have photos of the construction process, but a video showing all the steps can be found below, along with photos of the finished garment.

Now for the robe! As I said, this was made from a velvet I found at joanns, and served as the main inspiration for this projecteven though I couldnt start on it until finishing the dress that goes underneath it!

Because the dress was so time consuming to construct, it was kind of a mad dash to get this done in the end. But I managed!

Like the dress, this was self drafted. The bodice pattern was draped over top of the finished gown, and is a single piece with a separate panel at the front that forms a lapel. I had this vision from the very start of a lapel or collar turning into a hood which is created by sewing the hood in between the layers of the collar by hand.

The hood was the most challenging part of this project, it went through six different mockups, with lots of changes between them. I started by making it a heavily gathered rectangle with sloped sides, but thought it would be too bulky in the collar. Then it was shaped with darts. Then the darts were combined and replaced with a single seam. Then it was taken in by a lot. Then more darts were added for further shaping. And it was taken in some more. And here we are!

The brim of the hood is reinforced with three layers of ban-roll and two pieces of plastic boning so it holds itself open.

For once, the sleeves were the easy part. Their pattern was based on the one used for the satin dress, but altered to have more volume and more of a bell shape. The sleeves are split at the shoulder seam of the robe, revealing the satin sleeves worn underneath it. The bottom edge has a drawstring in it to allow for adjustments.

I intended on having the robe tie at the waist, revealing the dress beneath it. But I added closures all the way to the neck to allow for more options. And I actually love how it looks all buttoned up! It causes the hood to sit so nicely over the shoulders.

Also its not technically buttoned up. It actually closes with rhinestone encrusted clasps, that were set alongside pearls to make them look more fancy. Speaking of fancy, the robe has a belt sewn to the waist with beading similar to that featured on the dress, made up of pearls and glass montees.

The video below goes through the construction process in detail.

Overall, Im very happy with this project! I hope you like it too, and thanks so much for reading. I hope you have a wonderful holiday~!

For my second post of the day, I have something completely different, but with a similar Halloween inspiration.

And much like my robe a la polonaise, this dress is also made from a Wilmington Gone Batty fabric. Except for this piece, I bought the black and white stripe print fabric. Fifteen yards of it, to be exact.

I didnt use any references for this project, I just had an idea in mind and I wanted to make it a reality. And that idea evolved and changed as I worked on the project. I didnt take a lot of photos while constructing this, since it came together very quickly. But Ill do my best to explain my thought process.

The project is made from three pieces a skirt, dress, and hat. Its worn over a 1881 style false rump made from dense rows of cotton organdy, and a corset made following a pattern in Norah Waughs Corsets and Crinolines.

I had the foundations done ahead of time, so the first piece I started making for this project was the skirt.

I was originally going to make the skirt entirely out of vertically cut strips of the striped fabric. But when I actually got to starting on it, that seemed awfully boring. So I ended up alternating strips that were cut horizontally and vertically for a more intricate effect.

I draped the top panels to fit nicely over the false rump, so they taper in towards the waist and have some shaping to them. The rest of the skirt is made from rectangles that were seamed together and gathered down.

It kind of does wonky things to your eyes when you look at it. But I think thats part of its charm.

I had three design ideas I wanted to incorporate into the dress:

Easy enough right? I also had a sketch to work off of, but the finished dress doesnt really resemble it.

I usually dont bother draping skirts since they are somewhat simplistic in shape and require a ton of fabric. But since this was a new era and silhouette for me, I thought it was important to drape it and do a full mockup.

Here is my first mockup fitting.

A few tweaks hat to be made but I was pleasantly surprised with the shape and fit! I also played around with bustling the back while featuring glittery skeleton hands.

And then I made the dress. Yeah, I wasnt kidding when I said I was bad about photographing the construction process.

The dress was actually very simple to construct once I had it drafted. It was assembled completely by machine. And the hem of each panel was turned outward and covered with pleated satin trim from my stash, which was also sewn on by machine.

I didnt stitch down the seam allowance, or add boning or a waist stay like 1880s dresses traditionally had. Nor did I bother with lining. The neckline is finished with a facing and thats about it. The inner edge of the facing isnt even tacked down all that secures it is some lace trim which was (shocker) also sewn on by machine.

The only hand sewing involved was stitching on all the buttons, and securing skeleton hands to the front of the bodice. It kind of looks like they are cupping the chest, which I think is hilarious.

I used bows sewn from striped fabric and matching lace trim to cover the end of the hands, and make them a bit cuter.

The same method was used on the back of the skirt, where there are more hands. Except these are positioned to look like they are gathering the fabric that shapes the dress.

The actual shaping of the dress comes from gathers sewn before seaming the pieces together. Along with a carefully placed tacking stitch and twill tape ties.

All of that is hidden by another draped panel.

And thats the dress! It was paired with a hat I made from interfacing and corduroy, with matching lining.

The construction of this is pretty on par with the dressand by that I mean, its pretty crap. But looks decent from the outside.

I was so frustrated the day I worked on it, I didnt even have the patience to pin the wire in place before sewing it on.which led to me breaking four needles whilst constructing it. Yeah. Dont sew when agitated, it can be dangerous!

Its trimmed with some dyed goose feathers, more skeleton hands, and a fake dragon skull I bought at Michaels. The glittery hands came from Michaels too, they were in the floral decor section originally attached to sticks and meant to be part of Halloween bouquets! But I think my usage of them is superior.

The shoes were from American Duchess, simple black pumps called Tissot and appropriate for the era.

And here it is all finished!

Compared to my Robe a la Polonaise which had so much hand work invested in the construction process, this is practically a pile of garbage. But I think I like it just as much as the polonaise, just for completely different reasons.

Im a big believe in that things dont have to be perfect to be worth making, or worth appreciating.

And even if youre capable of superior construction, sometimes its nice to focus more on the the creative and artistic aspect of sewing, rather than what the inside of a garment looks like.

Sort of like how an artist might slave over a painting for months, that they are really proud of. But also bang out a beautiful sketch in ten minutes. Both can be appreciated even if the quality (and quantity) of work put into them is very different. Whos to say that cant be the case with historical costumes too? Or at least thats my justification for it!

I think this is one of the most visually striking things Ive made in a long time, if not ever. And Im proud of it because of that. I hope you like it too though Im sorry about the lack of progress shots!

Thanks for reading! I hope you have a wonderful Halloween (or just a wonderful day, if you dont celebrate) and hopefully Ill be back with another post sometime soon!

As promised, here are the worn photos of my 1780s Robe a la Polonaise and the coordinating pumpkin hat! I feel like I should have taken the opportunity to call this project the Pumpkin Polonaise unfortunately its a little too late for that.

But even without the catchy name, I think its a pretty great costume!

If you are interested in how I made it, the construction notes can be found here.

I also wanted to give a big thank you to Lenny Bruno Farms who were nice enough to let us take pictures in their beautiful pumpkin patch!

Thanks for reading! And keep an eye out for another post coming later today, that features another Halloween themed project!

TAGS:Claytons Angela Creations Costumery 

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